New Prison Guard Had A Taste Of Life Behind Same Bars

July 20, 1985|by DAVID M. ERDMAN, The Morning Call

When Daniel Blount walked into Lehigh County Prison and down its dark corridors last week, the familiar faces that peered at him from behind bars called forth vivid memories of his own street life on Allentown's East Side.

But this time Blount was not coming as an inmate. He was coming to work his first day as one of the prison's newest guards, a job that fit his plans for the new life he had cut out for himself.

"When I looked at those guys, I saw me back there, back in my past," said Blount. "But I wanted the inmates to see me, because maybe if they could see the change in me, maybe they could see they want to change themselves too."

That is what Prison Deputy Warden Ross Stuart had hoped for when he hired Blount on July 9. Stuart said he knew Blount's background an arrest for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in 1981. But he said he was willing to take a risk. "We thought he could be a role model."

Some guards who heard about the hiring felt resentment. Others were apprehensive that a former inmate would be in their ranks.

County Commissioner Kenneth Mohr Jr., chairman of the judicial liaison corrections committee, said he had reservations about anyone being hired at the prison with a criminal record. He criticized Blount's hiring. "It's a poor policy to hire former inmates as guards," he said, "especially with a prison that has been plagued with problems like Lehigh County."

Stuart said, "I knew I might take heat for this. I hired Daniel Blount with his rap sheet in front of me. I checked with people who were acquainted with both lifestyles of Daniel Blount and these people respected him highly for his present lifestyle."

Warden Tim Carver said he also strongly supported the hiring. "We expect people in the community to hire inmates," he remarked. "If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't have a work release program."

Added Stuart, "The best description I could say about this guy is that he was a guy who flirted with the law and got his life turned around a couple of years ago."

Blount said the turning point was about two years ago when "I realized my step-children were afraid of me when I came indrunk and high, jumping on everybody for every little thing. I guess it's the same old story: my father was an alcoholic and he only gave us what money he didn't drink up. After a while I started gambling on 6th Street in the basements when I was only 15.

"My life was just getting high and having fun," said Blount, 30, who has since married and has three children and three stepchildren. "I got fed up with my life and wanted help. This meant turning away from all the old friends who were a part of the old Daniel Blount."

Blount said his rehabilitation was helped along with what he describes as a religious conversion that began during a prayer service at the Negro Cultural Center in Allentown. Shortly thereafter Blount started looking for work and landed a job at Allen High School as a monitor, whose duty was to keep order among students.

He said it was good recommendations from that job that helped him make inroads as a county employee.

Allen Assistant Principal Patrick Howlett said he didn't know of Blount's record when he was hired at the school. "I'm flabbergasted that he had a record. He's one of the nicest men and one of the most conscientious guys I have ever had the opportunity to work with." Added Michael Brown, another Allen assistant principal, "There was a consensus that this guy turned out to be the best hall monitor we've ever had at the school."

Blount said County Commissioner John McHugh helped him get an interview with prison officials. Blount carried with him a recommendation from Richard Burton, past president of the local unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

At one point this week it looked as though the prison officials' plan might backfire when the sheriff's office discovered Blount owed the county $314 in unpaid court fees from past offenses.

Court records show that Blount pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge on Sept. 15, 1981. A second charge of resisting arrest was dropped and Blount was ordered to pay costs and fines. He paid only $5. Contempt of court proceedings were issued against him. But when county sheriffs went looking for Blount at 434 E. Court St., they found he had moved and left no forwarding address.

The sheriff's office had written it off as an attempt by Blount to evade the fines.

The unpaid fines went undetected during job interviewing in the prison and county personnel office. Personnel Director Charles Dorn said it hasn't been practice for his office to check whether prospective employees owe fines, although criminal records are checked. "What irritated me is that this wasn't picked up," said Dorn, "but it is not something we routinely check. But I can tell you this, it is something that will be checked from now on. As far as Blount is concerned, though, his past wasn't as clean as a whistle but he appears to have cleaned up his act."

When Blount appeared at the sheriff's office this week at the request of prison officials to clear up the fines, Deputy Sheriff Ken Smith said, "When I told him about the money he owed, he was shocked about it." Blount agreed to have the fines deducted from his paycheck. With that agreed, Smith said he wasn't interested in an explanation on why he neglected to pay the fines.

"It looked like this guy was definitely on the straight and narrow and so we didn't want to bury him," said Smith.